Pages

For over 150 years, Milwaukee has been home to a large community of people of Polish descent. The Milwaukee Polonia Project hopes to show the interweaving, intertwining family trees that resulted in this community. It is hoped that, eventually, all the families can be connected to one another. The Milwaukee Polonia Project is also a means to explore our common history and celebrate our shared heritage.

THE ACTUAL DATABASE OF THE TREE IS NOW LOCATED AT THE MILWAUKEE POLONIA PROJECT TREE at Tribal Pages. (We still have much work to do, so don't assume that families are shown completely.) YOU DO NOT NEED A PASSWORD TO ACCESS INFORMATION ON DECEASED INDIVIDUALS.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

The following is the fourth in our series on the Polish Pioneers. (Many thanks for Chris Stolz for providing all the materials on this Featured Profile.)

The following appeared in the Kuryer Polski on August 12, 1917:

POLISH PIONEER - JOHN PLISZKA

Mr. John Pliszka, who presently lives on the corner of Tenth Avenue and Grant Street, is one of a long line of old settlers of the southern side of the city of Milwaukee. Mr. John Pliszka settled on the southern side of Milwaukee at a time when this terrain was covered with woods or grazing lands and when only here and there a small house was to be seen. Mr. John Pliszka was born in on 20 January 1853 in Gostoczyn, [JD1] which, at the time,[JD2] was part of West Prussia. He attended elementary school until he was fourteen, and then he worked on his parents’ farm until he was twenty years old. He then left on his own for America, landing in New York. He stayed a few months in Chicago before finally settling down in Milwaukee on the south side of the city. On the 29 September 1875 he married Miss Julianne Halman. The wedding took place in Saint Stanislaus Church and was officiated by Father Gulski. Twenty- nine years ago he established a saloon and a grocery store[JD3], of which he was the proprietor, on the southern corner of Tenth Avenue and Grant Street where he presently lives. After two years in this business he established a dairy on the same location. He was in this business for twelve years and he had nine cows. In those days things were not done as systematically as they are done now, when the milk is delivered to the residences by car or by horse-drawn carriages. It was mostly his children who helped him deliver the milk by foot to the neighborhood. After ending his association with the dairy business, he worked for a few years at the Forest Home Cemetery and finally, during the last six years he worked at the Harsh & Edmonds factory near Hanover Street. He has not worked for the past year, but is still fit and healthy. Five daughters and one son live and reside in the south side of the city. Their names are: Anna Mazurkiewicz, the spouse of Michael Mazurkiewicz, a policeman, 925 Tenth Avenue; Maryanna Jasinski, 819 Lincoln Avenue; Francis Brykcinski, 693 Grant Street; Julianna Pliszka, who lives with her parents; Helen Stolz, 789 Arthur Avenue; and the son Joseph Pliszka who manages a saloon near Fourteenth Avenue and Burnham Street. In addition to the above family, Mr. John Pliszka has a brother Joseph Pliszka who lives at 775 Ninth Avenue, as well as a brother and three sisters who still reside in Poland.

[JD1]In the Polish language, not only nouns but names are declined – the declinations are ignored in translation

[JD2] “at the time” is not in the original text, but I have added it to make it clearer for the uninformed reader.

[JD3] “grocernia” is not a polish word – is suspect it is a “polonized” version of “grocery store”.

Relation to Nearest Featured Profile: Charles Stachowiak (Featured Profile #22): No near relationship.

Labels

Search This Blog

Loading...

Followers

Please Correct Our Errors!

The connections shown on the Milwaukee Polonia Project are the work of many genealogical researchers across a large block of time. Inconsistencies are bound to occur. Moreover, all genealogy involves some guess work and assumptions. Therefore, even when using the strictest research methods, mistakes will happen. We apologize for this, but we also wish to make the tree as accurate as possible. Therefore, if you spot an error in our tree, please notify us so that we may correct it.